If assets can be "programmed," who will define their value?

Author: Zhang Feng

As the core of human value-bearing, "assets" have evolved from ancient shells and precious metals to modern real estate, stocks, and digital copyrights. Our understanding, definition, and trading methods of assets constitute the foundation of the entire socio-economic system.

With the arrival of the Web3 era, a completely new asset form—Programmable Assets—is shaking and reshaping the value logic that has persisted for centuries with unprecedented force. To understand the profundity of this transformation, we first need to examine the foundational value of traditional assets.

1. The Three Value Pillars of Traditional Assets: Scarcity, Utility, and Ownership

The value logic of traditional assets is built on three relatively solid pillars:

Scarcity is a classic source of value. Whether it is a gold mine with limited reserves in nature, a unique painting created by an artist, or a fixed number of shares issued by a publicly listed company, the truth that "things are valuable because they are scarce" is undeniable. Scarcity creates tension in the supply-demand relationship, whether artificially or naturally, and is the core anchor point in asset pricing.

Utility refers to the fact that an asset must satisfy some kind of human need. Houses provide a place for living or business, stocks represent ownership in a company and a claim to future earnings, and software licenses grant the right to use specific programs. Utility is the foundation of an asset's intrinsic value; without utility, scarcity is just a castle in the air.

Ownership is a mature legal and social contract system (such as land deeds, stock certificates, copyright law) that defines and protects the exclusive possession of assets. Ownership makes the trading, mortgaging, and inheritance of assets possible, and it is the institutional prerequisite for the value of assets to be realized and circulated in the market.

Under this logic, assets are essentially static, passive, and closed. A famous painting, once purchased by a collector, quietly hangs on the wall; its value may fluctuate with the market, but the artwork itself does not change. A stock certificate represents rights, but these rights cannot be automatically executed. Traditional assets are more like a "value island," whose value release heavily relies on external, centralized intermediaries and judicial systems.

2. Programmable Assets: Concepts and Revolutionary Features

Programmable assets are digital assets based on blockchain technology, endowed with behavioral logic through smart contracts. The most common forms today include fungible tokens (such as BTC, ETH) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Their revolutionary characteristic lies in:

Code is Law: The rules of assets are defined by pre-written, automatically executed smart contracts, ensuring the implementation of rules without the need for third-party intermediaries.

Composability: Like Lego blocks, programmable assets can seamlessly connect and nest with other smart contracts and decentralized applications (DApps), creating entirely new financial products and application scenarios.

Transparency and Immutability: The issuance, transaction history, and ownership records of assets are recorded on a public distributed ledger, greatly enhancing trust and reducing verification costs.

These features transform assets from a static "store of value" into a dynamic "unit of value."

3. Programmable Assets: Dynamic, Active, Interactive Value Units

Programmable assets are no longer silent "objects"; they are active economic agents endowed with "life." Their value logic presents three distinct new characteristics:

Dynamic Value refers to the fact that the value of an asset is no longer fixed or solely determined by external markets, but can evolve automatically through preset conditions. For example, an NFT can be programmed so that each time it is resold, the original creator automatically receives a certain percentage of royalties. This transforms the asset itself into a continuous, automated income stream, with value continuously accumulating and being redistributed as it circulates.

Active Value refers to the ability of assets to actively respond to external conditions to "create" or "capture" value for themselves. In DeFi (Decentralized Finance), users can use their held NFTs as collateral to actively participate in lending protocols to earn interest or lend out funds. Assets shift from being passive "stores of value" to active "value production tools."

Interactive Value refers to the idea that assets serve as a "key" to specific experiences, communities, and power. Holding a governance token of a project not only represents economic rights but also directly implies voting rights on community proposals. Assets become credentials for participation and interaction, and their value is deeply tied to the holder's level of engagement and influence within the ecosystem.

IV. The Restructuring of Value Logic: From "What You Have" to "What You Can Do"

Based on the above characteristics, programmable assets are reshaping value logic from four dimensions:

From "Static Scarcity" to "Programmatic Scarcity": Scarcity is no longer just a fixed total supply, but can be dynamically managed through code. For example, an asset can be designed so that its total supply is slowly released as the number of participating users increases, linking scarcity to ecological growth.

From "Fixed Utility" to "Composable Utility": The value boundaries of assets have been greatly expanded. An NFT weapon in a game may possess financial utility for collateral lending due to its combination with another DeFi protocol. Its value is the sum of its intrinsic utility and all potential combinatorial scenario utilities, known as the "Lego Effect."

From "Legal Ownership" to "Algorithmic Autonomy": Ownership no longer fully relies on the endorsement of legal documents, but is controlled by cryptographically secured, on-chain verifiable private keys. This "self-custody" model reduces trust costs and enables seamless, peer-to-peer asset transfers globally.

From "Value Islands" to "Network Nodes": The value of assets is no longer isolated but deeply embedded in a vast, open programmable economic network. Its value is positively correlated with the health, activity, and connectivity of the network.

5. Case Analysis: AI and the Integration of Generative Short Videos in Web3

Let's present this transformation of value logic with a cutting-edge case that combines AI and Web3—generative short video NFTs.

Suppose there is a digital artist "Xiao Ying", who no longer creates a fixed video file, but instead has created a "programmable short video generator" as an NFT.

Traditional Model: Aria creates a 10-second MP4 video to sell as an NFT. The buyer owns the rights to this MP4 file. Its value depends on the artistry of the video, Aria's fame, and market preferences. It is a static asset.

Programmable Asset Model: The work created by Xiao Ying is a generative art project managed by smart contracts.

Dynamic Value: The smart contract stipulates that each time the NFT is traded, the style of its video will undergo a subtle evolution based on the characteristics of the new holder's wallet address (by algorithmically generating an "art seed"). Meanwhile, Xiao Ying will permanently enjoy royalties from each transaction. In this way, the value of the asset is bound to its life journey (transaction history), with each transfer adding new stories and uniqueness.

Active and Interactive Value: Holding this NFT is not only for appreciation but also for participation in creation. Holders can input text prompts (such as "Cyber City Under the Starry Sky") to invoke the integrated AI video generation model (like Sora) to generate a unique video variant that belongs to them. This newly generated video is also recorded on the blockchain as a "derivative asset" of the original NFT, with ownership belonging to the holder. The asset transforms from a consumer product into a creative tool.

Composable Utility: This NFT can be "staked" into the exclusive DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) created by Xiaoying. Stakers can not only earn new token rewards through staking but also gain voting rights on Xiaoying's future creative direction. At this point, the asset possesses fourfold utility as a collectible, creative tool, income-generating asset, and governance credential. Its value is a composite of its artistic value, tool value, financial value, and community value.

In this case, the valuation logic has been completely changed. We can no longer simply estimate its value using "artist's fame + video production cost." Instead, we must evaluate:

The cleverness of its smart contract design (does it incentivize long-term holding and healthy circulation?)

The capabilities and uniqueness of its AI model (Is the generated content impressive enough?)

The activity level and consensus strength of its community (Is governance power valuable?)

Its composable potential within the entire Web3 ecosystem (Can it interact with other projects?)

The emergence of programmable assets marks a fundamental shift in value logic from the "physical paradigm" to the "digital paradigm." It no longer views assets as a solidified value object that needs to be guarded and traded, but rather as an open, programmable economic entity that can actively participate in the value creation process. The core of this transformation is the shift from focusing on "What you have" to focusing on "What your asset can DO."

Moreover, this is not just a technological revolution; it is also a profound experiment in economics and sociology. It is redefining the paradigms of wealth, property rights, and collaboration. For businesses, creators, and every participant, understanding and embracing the new logic of programmable assets is no longer a forward-looking topic, but a necessary requirement to grasp the key to future growth in the impending era of the value internet.